Year end updates from the policy team

December is upon us, creators, and it’s time for the year’s final installment of the Creator Policy Engagement Program (CPEP). This quarter we are proposing one change to our Community Guidelines, updating Adult/18+ creators on the timeline for Age Verification, and filling you in on some relevant product and trust and safety developments. Read on to learn more and to hear about all the ways you can engage with Patreon’s Policy Team in the coming weeks.

Violent and Graphic Content

We want to enable your creativity to thrive and be a welcoming place for everyone on Patreon. In that spirit, the Policy Team is considering establishing a new section of our Community Guidelines on “Violent and Graphic Content” to specify that content glorifying violence and real-world suffering, such as human or animal abuse, torture, decapitation, and so forth are not allowed on the platform. We also recognize that depictions of this content can be necessary in certain non-gratuitous contexts (news, academia, documentary, science/medicine, true crime content, etc.), and could carve out exceptions for such cases. We’re hoping to hear from you, creators, about how this update might affect your work, the experience of your patrons, and any ways this proposed change could be improved.

Adult/18+ age verification timeline update

Note: Age verification is required of adult/18+ creators whose campaigns include one or more works containing nudity or sexually explicit content. These works can take any form, for instance: audio, text, and/or visual (including animations of human beings and/or depictions of human beings). Creators currently categorized as adult/18+ whose campaigns contain no nudity or sexually explicit content are eligible to opt out of age verification by recategorizing their campaigns to “safe for all audiences.”

Creators in the adult/18+ category may recall that we focused last quarter’s CPEP on age verification requirements from our payment processing partners. We’re back with an update around the timeline adult/18+ creators can expect for this process to begin. Rather than initiate the verification process in August & September as originally projected, Patreon has taken time to ensure things run as smoothly for adult/18+ creators as possible, and these creators can expect to begin being notified to begin verification in early 2023. In other words, if you have yet to hear about Age Verification next steps, don’t worry. The verification process itself, which we laid out last quarter, will remain the same. When that process begins, adult/18+ creators can:

• Go ahead and complete age verification using a government-issued ID. We’ve partnered with a secure third party that is global in scope and will verify that you are at least 18 years old. Click here for much more on process, privacy, security, etc.
• OR stay tuned for the ability to use a non-government-issued ID for age verification. Thanks to creator input, we are developing a list of alternative forms of ID we can accept that will meet the requirement. We’re offering creators this avenue in the name of privacy and inclusivity (two of the topics that came up most often in your feedback) and will update you when we have more details.

Creators with questions about age verification can always email [email protected] with any questions.

Additional updates

In the world of Trust & Safety, the development we previewed in Q2 that gives moderators a less disruptive option for addressing mild guidelines infractions, has been rolled out. It allows content moderators to temporarily hide an individual violative post from patron view so the violation can be addressed without freezing the creator’s whole page. Additionally, last month we rolled out early access to Patreon Video, a new way for creators to share exclusive, high-quality videos directly to their fans, right on Patreon.

Learn more and engage with the Policy Team

As always, we want to hear from you! The team will host a policy live stream on Thursday, December 15. When you RSVP, you’ll be able to submit any questions you’d like the team to address, and if you’re unable to join us live, we’re sharing an on-demand recording afterwards (note that the live stream will take place in English). Following the live stream, we’ll be available to keep the policy conversation going in a dedicated Discord Q&A channel in Patreon’s Creator Community Discord server, #policy-live-qa. And as always, you can email thoughts, questions, and ideas to the team at [email protected].